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Six Flags St. Louis
Eureka, Missouri, USA |Row 2 title =Owner |Row 2 info =Six Flags |Row 3 title =Opened |Row 3 info =June 5, 1971 |Row 4 title=Size |Row 4 info=240 acres ( hectares) |Row 5 title=Official Website |Row 5 info=http://www.sixflags.com/stLouis/index.aspx }} 'Six Flags St. Louis '(Previously Six Flags Over Mid-America) is an amusement park located in Eureka, Missouri. It is the 3rd park in the Six Flags chain of amusement parks. It is the last park in the chain to be founded by Angus G. Wynne and unlike sisters Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia it is wholly owned by the Six Flags corporation. History Ten years after Angus G. Wynne established the Six Flags chain with Six Flags over Texas in 1961 and moved on to build Six Flags over Georgia six years later, Six Flags wanted to expand their reach of amusement parks into the Midwest, achieving that goal with the opening of a $55 million park in Eureka, Missouri just outside of Saint Louis. The Six Flags flew high on June 5, 1971 when the new theme park was unveiled as Six Flags over Mid America. With 132 acres of land initially developed, guests could explore six themed sections: USA, England, Spain, Missouri, Illinois, and France; home to such attractions as the twin-tracked Arrow Dynamics-designed River King Mine Train, the Six Flags Railroad, a log flume, spinning rides, and a petting zoo. For the next two seasons, several new flat rides would be added to Six Flags Mid America's lineup, with a new kids' area opening in 1975 containing the Rock Candy Express kiddie coaster. But the Missouri park's big break wouldn't arrive until wooden rollercoaster designer John Allen arrived to create his final and largest wooden coaster, the Screamin' Eagle. The out and back wooden terrain coaster took flight on April 10 of 1976 as the world's largest woodie, with a lift of eleven stories and 92-foot third plunge. Screamin' Eagle became a classic and finally put Six Flags over Mid America on the map. In 1978, Intamin's 25-story Sky Chuter was introduced as one of the largest parachute towers in the world. The park's next coaster addition would come three years later with the looping steel coaster Jet Scream from Anton Schwarzkopf. Mid America's second water ride, the Thunder River rapids ride, opened in 1983 - the same year that Sky Chuter was sent east to another Six Flags property. While no new coaster was added for the 1984 season, the park experimented with introducing stand-up cars to one track of the River King Mine Train, renaming that side Rail Blazer. But the change lasted only that year, and cars were changed back after an incident in which a rider fell from the train. The next year brought a new kids' area, Looney Tunes Town, and 1986 a ferris wheel. Although several new spinning rides found home at the Mid-American Six Flags park at the end of the 1980s, the loss of two out of four steel coasters came about in 1988 with the removal and relocations of both Jet Scream and one half of River King Mine Train. To compensate for the loss, the Ninja was brought in, relocated from British Columbia, with a compact layout of steel track containing four inversions. Tidal Wave a splashdown water ride, became the first major ride addition of the '90s, and the 1993 through '95 seasons would be spent retheming and renaming most of the park's sections. Dominating over one of those rethemed areas for 1995 was Batman: The Ride, a Bolliger and Mabillard inverted coaster with a layout mirrored from the similar rides of several other Six Flags locations. And for the park's twenty-fifth anniversary, in 1996, the name officially became Six Flags St. Louis. In addition, a new skycoaster thrillride was opened that year. 1998 Brought the debut of Mr. Freeze, which blasted off from Premier Rides as a 22-story, 70-mile per hour LIM-launched shuttle-looping steel coaster. The following year, an adjacent 12-acre waterpark was introduced as Hurricane Harbor, featuring an initial eleven water rides and attractions. And in 2000, Six Flags St. Louis' second and largest wooden coaster was unleashed, named Boss, as a 5,051-foot long twisting terrain coaster built by Custom Coasters International. With 2002 came Slingshot, a new vertical thrillride, and the interactive dark ride Scooby Doo Ghostblasters, followed by the addition of the spinning, looping thrillride Xcalibur. Present Roller Coasters (9) Past Roller Coasters (4) Category:Amusement parks Category:Six Flags Category:Missouri